Completed in one sitting

164   7.9  

Ughh, I played this through in Hard mode, one under veteran or whatever it is, and I smashed it in four hours. It has its hilarious moments of overkill, but relying on Spec Ops missions and Multiplayer for longevity felt so cheap to me. Uninstalled and desk drawed for the foreseeable future.

Hardest Part: Chasing some dude through the Favellas. Hood rats crawl out of every cranny to machine gun you in the face. And FUCKING dogs.

Honour invoked: 0/10
I am sure my story is the same of many other gamers who wanted to see what all the fuss is about.

The Flagship's rating:

1134   7.8  

The great thing about playing this game is that I got to watch so much of the Live 8 concert scheduled in 2005. We began the day by watching Madonna or some godawful act before we set up our housemate's X-Box and slapped in Halo 2. We expected a summer-consuming game which would draw us in and stress our gaming prowess to the limits. Six or so hours later we'd finished the game and were back watching Pink Floyd in the concert. Oh well, so much for the hype.

Hardest Part: Making a conscious effort to follow the storyline. It's like trying to follow a nitrogen atom around the room.

Honour involked: 1/10
The most honourable thing that day was that we saw Pink Floyd's first live performance in decades.

The Flagship's rating:

55   7.3  

It took me YEARS to realise that the way I was completing this game wasn't the 'complete' way of doing it. If you get half of the gems you can trade them with the witch for Minnie Mouse. But that's not good enough, I want that bitch dead! Every enemy in this game is essentially a nice cuddly colourful everyday item, but it's still a horrific game! I was so happy when I finally completed this game, but nobody I've ever met has ever even heard of it. Oh well.

Hardest Part: Figuring out how to get to the actual end. Or collecting every diamond on the toy soldier level when the floor turns into a slide!

Honour invoked: 2/10
At the end of the day, you can't get too excited about completing a game with no save function in one go!

The Flagship's rating:

229   6.8  

The Blue Shift add-on provided nowhere near as much gameplay as either Opposing Force, or the actual Half-Life game itself. It's on the list because completing it made me feel finally prepared to play Half-Life 2, which went on to become my favourite game of all time. I also loved the fact that I geared myself up for a huge last boss and daring escape, only to have one of the biggest anticlimaxes ever!

Hardest Part: Stopping your sides from splitting at some of the scientist deaths/escapes. Will the guys in white coats ever get a break?

Honour invoked: 2/10
This game is enjoyable and relatively easy to breeze through. If only it was longer.

The Flagship's rating:

50   7.2  

Not only did I complete this game in one sitting, but I also managed it without dying. My brother left the house after watching me breeze through the a few early levels with ease, then when he got back to watch me knock off the final ludicrous space boss, he didn't believe I'd done it without dying. He still doesn't to this day :(

Hardest Part: The final 'boss' in the Woods level, which in essence is just a shit loads of zombies that no amount of Thriller choreography special move will kill.

Honour invoked: 4/10
I could probably do the same now with ease, but when I was younger I thought I was a gaming God who never had to prove himself in front of a console again.

The Flagship's rating:

512   7.9  

Looking back now, completing Sonic one go is absolutely no big deal, but back in the day when I finally managed to slay this beast (WITHOUT LEVEL SELECTING!) I was left numb with excitement. The final boss music still rings in my ears from time to time, it's synonymous with 'you've made it, son, now waste this fool'. Oh boy, and attacking Robotnik's space ship as he tries to fly off, the final crushing blow!

Hardest Part Labyrinth Zone, for the persistent terror and psychological anguish experienced through drowning.

Honour invoked: 4/10
I'm still pretty proud!

The Flagship's rating:

619   8.8  

This game is the complete opposite of Call of Duty. You can complete this bad boy in four hours and still be ultra compelled to go back and play it again. My once-through came when I couldn't be bothered to go and play football one day. I sat down, loaded the beast up and carved my way through it, still managing to get out again in time for the second half with my buddies. I remember boasting immensely to my group of mates afterwards, even though they hadn't even heard of MGS.

Hardest Part: As always, going back through the entire game to pick up the PSG-1. It feels like forever, made even harder by the sounds of joy and fun from outside.

Honour invoked: 5/10
A high honour score, because it's such an honourable game.

The Flagship's rating:

80   8.2  

Streets of Rage 2 was an absolutely epic game and one that forms a major part of my childhood! The soundtrack alone toys with your emotions to the point of leaving your curled up in disappointment when you die five levels in. I finally completed this from beginning to end with my brother in 2 player mode. It was an immense exercise in co-operation and endeavour! The brotherhood I felt for my ally after the credits roll was a bond that was stronger than actually being brothers! Skate and Max shredded it up!

Hardest Part: The lift up to Mr. X where you have to fight every thug and hi-tech robot in the game so far, with nothing left in the tank but blistered fingers and rage!

Honour invoked: 6/10
Every time we revisited this game after we pumped it up to extra hard and gave ourselves 9 lives before just trying to survive the last two stages. What a game.

The Flagship's rating:

338   8.1  

For absolutely no reason in my first year of university I declared war on sleep, and so after completing DX for the first time I immediately went out, bought some supplies and then sat and started again. It took a respectable length of time. I was completely alone and it was a school night, but I managed to nail it after missing just one day's worth of lessons! The ultimate honour for a favourite game.

Hardest Part: Sinking the Wallcloud, it's such a boring segment of the game!

Honour invoked: 8/10
It would be higher, but I've watched people speed run the game on youtube and it put my achievements to shame.

The Flagship's rating:

1379   8.5  

Unquestionably the zenith of my gaming career. Once I crossed 'Completing this game in one go' from my life-long to-do list, I realised I didn't have any other ambitions that even nearly matched such a goliath task! An insert came with my game promoting the Sony Memory Card which said 'Try beating FFVII without it!', well it's very much possible, Sony!

Hardest Part: Without doubt, staying awake.

Honour invoked: 10/10
Simultaneously the saddest and most amazing gaming achievement of my life!

The Flagship's rating: